The Seahawks turned the page to a new quarterback this offseason, trading away Geno Smith and signing Sam Darnold.
But on the first day of OTAs the media could watch, Darnold had one rough sequence, with multiple reporters noting Darnold threw two red-zone interceptions in three plays.
That prompted Mike Salk of Seattle Sports 710 to ask head coach Mike Macdonald in a Tuesday interview if there were anything other than injury that could cause the club to change its plan at starting quarterback.
Macdonald immediately shut the notion down.
“No, no, you guys are crazy,” Macdonald said, via video from the station. “I respect you’ve got to ask it, but it’s just a crazy question. It’s not gonna happen. Sam’s our starting quarterback. We love him. He’s doing a tremendous job.”
Macdonald continued with a little sarcasm, criticizing the tendency to make snap conclusions.
“I think it’s funny that the media is out there for the first day and all of a sudden they know exactly how good we’re going to be, how good all the players are, and all the tempos,” Macdonald said, tongue-in-cheek. “We haven’t even put on pads yet. We haven’t made one tackle. And it turns out a practice, it’s a great way to build culture by letting guys know that they can’t make mistakes. That’s exactly what we’re shooting for. So go out to practice, be tight, make sure you don’t make a mistake because god forbid you’re the worst player of all time because you made one bad throw or one bad decision.
“That is not what we’re trying to build,” Macdonald continued. “We want these guys to go prepare the right way, and then when they get out on the practice field, go freakin’ let it rip, And then we’ll go fix it. We’ll go. We’ve got time. It’s June 3rd. We’ll go. They’re going to get plenty of reps. We’ll get those things fixed.”
Plus, Macdonald noted that it wasn’t all bad for Darnold during practice.
“Sam made a lot of great throws yesterday,” Macdonald said. “He’s gashing us to start the day out, too. So, that was kind of a crazy question.”
The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year deal in March after he completed 66.2 percent of his passes for 4,319 yards with 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for the Vikings last season. Drew Lock and rookie Jalen Milroe are the other two quarterbacks on Seattle’s roster.
This content was brought to you by: profootballtalk
